Feature request: devices added by users

I have a service based on BWM that allows up 50 users. Each user can have up to 10 devices as part of their rule.

Currently I allocate IP addresses in an external DHCP server, then I have groups of addresses allocated to each rule. This has a lot of overheads when I add or delete users, as I have to allocate Mac addresses to IP addresses that are then part of the rule. I use IP addresses rather than Mac addresses in the group as they are easier to manage / read.

A great feature would be self allocated MAC addresses to a rule. Given that the users are connected at layer 2, the PC running the BWM has access to the MAC addresses.

So if a user is part of Rule 1, they could have a username (same as the rule name) and a password, they could open a web page that connects to the BWM database. That webpage could check the MAC address on the attached device, and add that to a list (or it could be done manually). That way as a user wants to add devices they can do it themselves, and the IP address is not relevant to the rule.

An admin page could flush the MAC addresses from that rule when the user is no longer part of the system.

Hope this makes sense. It would reduce the management overheads on a BWM LAN dramatically.

It makes sense to integrate this functionality with some kind of Captive Portal where registered users are able to allow their own devices. At the same time, unknown clients may be subject to approval.

We've had this idea of adding captive portal features for a while, so hopefully we can implement them later this year or next year.